paper water - the music dancers with different colors new colors and totally new steps
The Partnership period
At
the partnership stage the leader and follower know how to move in
tango, how to take steps and adapt to each other. At the beginning of
this period you slowly grow out from the leader/follower roles and are
transformed to dancers with much more equal impact on a tanda than
earlier.
In many important changes in my life, the relevant
aspects of a situation come together in a picture embodying the values
playing at that moment. So was the origin of this metaphor. I still
remember the follower and the spot on the pista where I was struck by
the idea about an aquarelle as an equivalent metaphor for our dancing.
The sheet of paper is the base and together with the pure water they represent the music.
When
we start to dance, her colors are trickling from one side of the paper
and mine are coming in from the opposite side. Our movements make the
water move and blend our colors to totally new ones. There are new
paths, forms creating themselves on the paper as well.
In a milonga,
the same tanda would feel different with a new follower, because they
come with a different personal set of colors. Followers have also impact
on leaders steps but the effect is not always easy to recognize. It can
be easier to notice with a new partner. Totally new combinations and
forms evolve when the personalities fit.
the followers drive their car on the prepared road
Following & Leading period
From the very beginning, I have been uncomfortable with the idea of following to be a passive role but it has been a challenge to find a way to describe the active parts included. It has also been impossible to find one picture integrating the whole life of a dancer. The feeling during the first years was totally different compared to the experience of a tanda 20 years later.
What kind of a metaphor could then describe the first years when the leading and following roles have the strongest presence in the couple. In the beginning, we are learning how to move our bodies to Argentine tango and how we relate to music so the dance becomes enjoyable even during your first years!
In classical music, the idea of a musical landscape is common so the idea of tangos creating their own sound landscape was a logical development. Even if some of the song texts are about soccer, heart, blood, and difficulties the music still creates different parallel paths the leaders can choose their favorite among. This is the leaders advantage or often a responsibility during the first years.
The Road Constructor
It is also easy to think a leader as a road constructor when he is choosing the musical path for his feet and body, building the road, which he is offering to the follower too. His skill to navigate and adapt to the other couples will create a safe road on the pista for the couple. Is your road rough or has it a smooth surface? How can your follower recognize the signs for speed limits? Other signs? Are there spaces for scenery stops?
The Car Driver
The follower is not a car as suggested so many times but the driver. It is the follower's decision how to drive that car! It is her decision to keep the vehicle on the offered road and to follow the speed limits and other road signs from the leader during the journey. What is your style of driving? Is it slow or fast? Is the driving occupying all your capacity or are you able to enjoy the path, the musical landscape around you?
The lead/follow period is about learning how to create the tango movements and sequences with your body and how to communicate all that to the partner. It is much more about learning and not so much about improvising yet.
Yes, this is just a metaphor and it doesn't meet all the leading and following aspects but it shows a possibility for a dynamic experience in both roles.
This is the metaphor for the first period on a dancers path! You can here below find the different possibilities there are for us!
https://leadingladyl.blogspot.com/2019/05/three-stages-of-tango-followlead.html
It took time but when I discovered this 3-stage development in my dance it facilitated the acceptance of certain difficulties. I knew it was not forever but for now!
This development chain can be activated in different situations during the dancers' life. It is the main tendency but it can also be activated when you want to learn a new skill or technique. Sometimes you maybe need to adapt your dance to a partner or pista at a different stage.
Following - Leading period
I consider that these two roles were created just for learning purposes! When we were starting up no one knew how to take the steps together in tango so the process would have been chaotic - to organize the learning the split of responsibilities was activated as well as the leader/ follower hierarchy. During this period the dancers learn to manage their own body and tango moves as well as the communication with, to and from, the partner.
I still remember how I was physically moving the follower during my first leading year. When she started to recognize my lead and we were able to complete the sequences then the lead, the physical impact could be lessened. Back then the leaders talked about moving a piece of furniture during a tanda but I am sure we were many, who acted as a moving service even when the follower was doing her part beautifully.
Later on we learn to communicate more effortless but my ability to adapt to surprises was still fragile. If the follower didn't respond by the book, if her response was not the one I expected the dance crashed, we stopped and restarted the sequence from the beginning.The same happened when another couple disturbed us!
Both groups will learn their own movements and communication. On top of that the leaders work on some additional responsibilities - they need to know the follower's steps, create the content and musicality during a tanda - making the leaders learning period longer. When the followers had learned their own part they could start to enjoy the dance with those leaders, who could offer some flow and smooth steps. Some followers will take this further and start to fully rely on the skilled leaders, who provide the musicality and more complex movements.
When we have developed our tango movements, a stable communication and we can manage surprises then we are well prepared for the next stage where we will meet more like equal partners. The leader/follower structure is changing to a dancer/dancer structure.
Partnering period
One day we will notice that the material is enough, the movement vocabulary and rhythmic patterns are enough so we will have satisfying variation during a tanda. Our ability to adapt to partners' unexpected moves and to react on surprises from the other couples grows and we will be able to manage the most situations on the pista without losing our dance flow. This increases our freedom and we can lessen the hierarchical structure of the roles and the dance will be a more equal type of partnering. In the beginning, I led every step but later on I knew that she was able to place her steps to music so I just communicated positions and directions. I actually danced with her upper body only and she took care of her own steps according to music and how our torsos were moving.
Because both dancers are now dancing more intuitively without constant mental control so there will be free capacity to pay attention to the partner and music. After 10-15 years of leading I was blown by the diversity among followers.
I have met the active partner followers as well as the relaxed, meditating followers and it is equally fantastic to dance with them. It seems that followers (leaders ?) who have been meditating or active in yoga have easier to relax while moving. In those cases my role has been to provide a flow of steps which is not boring but not too energetic either, just leaving the follower in the relaxed state of mind. If the dancing crowd is experienced then even I can relax and trust on the other couples' navigation skills.
A partner follower can create steps without the lead but she needs to follow the navigation lead which we have to maintain on an immature pista. If she is doing a Noelia, a rhythmic drill, she should develop a skill to continue even if the leader has to navigate or starts to dance too. It is the same demand as on the leader - I need to be skilled enough to change direction, speed and so on if the pista conditions force me to but keep our dance going on.
It was a rhythmical tango tanda where I was doing a quite fast path in the song. Suddenly I felt how she softly fall into a slower path also available in the music. It was a good choice so I hang on to the same path. I could have continued and she could have followed her choice but this time we went together.
We can also melt together when the following and leading are lost and the intuitive dance takes over. The dancing is not controlled, planned by the intellect but just happening, following the music playing. You often loose the feeling of time!
We are not any more leaders and followers but two dancers and we both listen to music and choose our steps. The challenge now is how to combine these two individual dances to one dancing couple. How should the arrangement be done for these two bodies?
Mature pista period
I had been dancing for some hours without a collision. Then suddenly I bumped twice to the same couple before me. He told me later that they were beginners - to my eye quite good dancers. That moment created the idea about a pista skill the experienced dancers have.
If you are driving a car you also know how smooth (some) experienced drivers can advance together. At the moment when you have a newly licensed driver before you the situation changes - the reactions can be too fast or too slow. They react differently and you need to pay special attention to those cars. The same can happen on the pista!
Experienced dancers are doing different steps but still they share a musicality, pista rhythm, so the movements are predictable. They go when the music is driving forward and they advance slowly when music is asking for that. They feel how different crowds move on a pista or what kind of speed certain orchestra creates on the ronda.
One of the navigation skills must be about musicality but it is also about the ability to turn your figures so you are coming out and continuing in a planned direction. The ability to vary step lengths within a figure gives you also flexibility to adapt to ever varying pista situations.
All these skills are needed to get a mature pista providing you the feeling of total freedom in your dance and the feeling of dancing to the music, with your partner as well as with the total pista!
The mature pista can pulsate! You can see it on some videos, here you have one!
How long time does this main development take? I have an estimate just for the lead/follow period coming from a tango teacher. She said that the preparation to partner stage usually takes five years and if the transition has not happened by eight years it will probably never occur.
